Special Post: Exam Food for my Students

You are having a busy time ahead of yourselves with tons of exams, late night studying and high stress levels. Just a word of solace- we’ve all been there and you’ll be fine! Just keep breathing!

With little or no time or nerves to shop or even thinking about cooking, I expect a lot of you will feed on processed unhealhty foods over the next week. Does that help you do well? I doubt it. As we all know though, our minds work best in healthy bodies (“mens sana in corpore sano”). The intended meaning is that only a healthy body can support a healthy mind, so we should strive to keep our bodies in top condition.

So here is a list of very easy and quick to prepare snacks and a few words of advise (you would probably not listen to your moms, but hopefully to your tutor):

Make a large batch of snacks once and freeze them (raw balls or goji squares for example)

Chop various vegetables once a week and store them in the fridge. That way, you can throw salads together in no time.

Stay away high fructose energy drinks, they are poison (like other poisons, fructose can only be metabolized by the liver which will slowly lead to a fatty liver; high fructose concentration releases 100 times the number of oxygen radicals and can cause pancreatic and arterial damage. Instead, have a moderate amount of coffee, exercise moderately (you can always squeeze in a short run which will give you an immediate energy boost and releases endorphins- “happy hormones”) and meditate for a few minutes (I use a great app called “calm”). Above all: Keep your calm!

If possible, and I know you might think “WHAT???”activate your nuts, seeds and grains. Soak quinoa, brown rice etc overnight in water with a splash of lemon juice before you use them the next day (rinse well before using them). Soak large batches of nuts and seeds at the same time overnight, then dry them for a few hours on low temperatures in the oven. Store them in the fridge. They make a fabulous snack. The reason behind all this effort? Phytic acid in the foods bind to important minerals like phosphorus, calcium, zinc or magnesium and prevents your body form absorbing the nutrients. So try to stay from raw nuts and seeds thinking these are healthy foods. They are only healthy if prepared properly. And believe me when I say this takes very little time!!! One minute to throw nuts in a bowl with water, another minute to transfer them to the oven and turn it on… and don’t forget to turn if off 🙂

Throw 1/4 cup each pecans and almonds, about the same amount dates and cherries and about tablespoons of raw cacao powder in a food processor. Add a bit of water and blend until you get a sticky mixture. Start off with just one teaspoon of water, then add a bit more if needed during processing until the mixture starts to stick together. If you like, you can coat the balls with raw cacao powder.